Other Theravada Sources

Contents

• Learning and practicing meditation
• The Pali language
• Printed books
• Audio and video recordings
• Electronic books and texts
• Other lists of links

Learning and practicing meditation

• » DharmaNet International (California, USA) has listings to help you find teachers, meditation groups, and Dhamma centers near you. In particular, there are listings of:
  • » Theravada meditation groups and Dhamma centers in the USA
  • » Theravada Dhamma centers around the world

The Pali language

• » BUDSIR -- Buddhist Scriptures Information Retrieval (Mahidol University, Thailand) is a CD-ROM containing the Thai edition of the Pali Tipitaka and Atthakatha (commentaries). It is available ($$) in the USA from » Scholars Press.

• » Chattha Sangayana (Sixth Council) Tipitaka CD (Vipassana Research Institute) is a CD-ROM containing the entire Chattha Sangayana (Sixth Council, 1954-1956) edition of the Tipitaka, transcribed from the Myanmar print edition. It includes the Tipitaka, the Atthakathas (commentaries) and the Tikas and AnuTikas (sub-commentaries) and the Visuddhimagga and its commentaries, all displayed in three scripts: Devanagari, Roman, and Myanmar.

• » Pali Language Sources and Resources (Maximilian Sendor) offers many useful tools to help you embark on your Pali studies. It features an online Pali dictionary, an online edition of Narada's Elementary Pali Course textbook, Pali sound files, and more.

• » The Sri Lanka Tripitaka Project (Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Penn. State University, USA) offers a free public-domain electronic edition of the Pali Canon (in romanized Pali) via the Internet . Although this edition hasn't yet been thoroughly proofread, it's still a tremendously valuable resource. (Also available from » JBE's mirror site in the UK.)

• The University of Minnesota maintains a » list of institutions in North America offering university-level academic courses in Pali.

Printed books

• Buddhist Cultural Centre
  125, Anderson Road
  Nedimala-Dehiwala
  Sri Lanka
  Tel: +94 1-734256
  Fax: +94 1-736737
  WWW: » http://www.lanka.net/bcc/
  The Buddhist Cultural Centre offers an unusual and wide-ranging selection of books, many of which are impossible to find in the US. Excellent overseas mail order service. Ask for their catalog.

• Buddhist Publication Society
  54, Sangharaja Mawatha
  P.O. Box 61
  Kandy
  Sri Lanka
  Tel & Fax: +94 8-223679
  WWW: » http://lanka.com/dhamma/bps/bps_main.htm
  E-mail: » bps@mail.lanka.net (Book orders are not accepted via e-mail.)
  The BPS is a major publisher of books on Theravada Buddhism, with an excellent international mail-order service. Their current international mail-order catalog is available from their website. The BPS runs the Nyanaponika Dhamma Dana Project, which distributes free copies of BPS publications to libraries and schools. Publications from the BPS are now distributed in the Americas (North and South) by Vipassana Research Publications of America (VRPA) and are available for purchase through the Pariyatti Book Service.

• Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation
  11th Floor
  55, Hang Chow South Road Sec 1
  Taipei
  Taiwan, R.O.C.
  Tel: +886 2-23951198
  Fax: +886 2-23913415
  WWW: none
  E-mail: » overseas@budaedu.org.tw
  This organization reprints and distributes free Dhamma books from many Buddhist traditions, including Theravada.

• Dhamma Dana Publications
  c/o Barre Center For Buddhist Studies
  149 Lockwood Road
  Barre, MA 01005
  USA
  Tel: (978) 355-2347
  Fax: (978) 355-2798
  Dhamma Dana Publications is dedicated to bringing a long-standing Buddhist tradition to America by making high-quality books on Buddhist teachings available for free distribution. Through the generosity of individual donors like yourself, Dhamma Dana publishes original works, whether based on critical scholarly interpretation of the canonical teachings, or on the unique perspective that arises from extensive practical meditative experience. Call or write for more information. Recent offerings include: Dhammapada: A Translation, The Wings to Awakening: An Anthology from the Pali Canon, An Unentangled Knowing: Teachings of a Thai Buddhist Laywoman, and Mind Like Fire Unbound: An Image in the Early Buddhist Discourses

• International Buddhist Center -- Buddhist Book Service
  The International Buddhist Center
  2600 Elmont Street
  Silver Spring, MD 20902-2700
  USA
  Tel: (301) 946-9437
  WWW: » http://members.aol.com/uparatana/ibcBuddhistBookService.html
  The IBC Buddhist Book Service is a nonprofit international mail order service offering a selection of many titles from contemporary Asian and western Theravada teachers. A number of titles are available free of charge.

• Pali Text Society
  73 Lime Walk
  Headington
  Oxford, OX3 7AD
  England
  Tel: +44 865-67575
  Fax: +44 865-750079
  WWW: » http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0dwe/bs12.html
  Since its founding in 1881, the PTS has been the world's pre-eminent publisher of texts from the Pali Canon. They offer a hardbound edition of the complete Pali Tipitaka in romanized Pali, and most of the Tipitaka in English translation. Some of their published translations of key texts are now very badly out of date, and have been superseded by more fluent translations from other publishers (for example, their translation of the Digha Nikaya dates back to 1899; Maurice Walshe's Long Discourses of The Buddha, published by Wisdom in 1987, is a much more useful text.) Nevertheless, many of the translations are still valuable. Their romanized Pali editions are indispensible tools for the serious Pali student. PTS books are distributed within North America by Wisdom Publications.

  The » PTS website includes several useful references, including a summary of the structure of the Pali Canon and an explanation of the various systems of abbreviations that are used in citing passages from the Canon.

• Pariyatti Book Service
  P.O. Box 15926
  Seattle, WA 98115
  USA
  Tel: (800) 829-2748 or (206) 522-8175
  Fax: (206) 522-8295
  WWW: » http://www.pariyatti.com/frontpage.htm
  The Pariyatti Book Service has a large mail-order catalog of books on Buddhism and meditation for sale from various publishers, including many » titles from the Buddhist Publication Society.

• Wisdom Audio-Visual Exchange (WAVE)
  c/o Mrs Lim Tay Poh
  No. 2, Jln Chan Ah Thong
  Off Jln Tun Sanbanthan
  50470 Kuala Lumpur
  Malaysia
  WAVE has an extensive catalog of Dhamma books for free distribution, with titles by such authors as Ajaan Lee, Ajaan Chah, Mahasi Sayadaw, and many others. WAVE welcomes donations to sponsor publication of new books or to reprint old titles.

• Wisdom Publications
  199 Elm Street
  Somerville, MA 02144
  USA
  Tel: (800) 272-4050
  WWW: » http://www.wisdompubs.org/
  Wisdom is a non-profit publisher and distributor of Buddhist books, and is the North American distributor for the Pali Text Society.

Audio and video recordings

• Dharma Seed Tape Library
  Box 66
  Wendell Depot, MA 01380
  USA
  Tel: (800) 969-SEED or (413) 772-1848
  WWW: » http://www.dharma.org/dstl/
  Dharma Seed sells audio cassette recordings of meditation instructions and teachings from retreats conducted at the » Insight Meditation Society.

• Audio tapes of Dhamma talks by Ven. Sister Ayya Khema, from retreats given in the USA, are available from: Carl Provder, 1416 Elva Terrace, Encinitas, CA 92024, USA. Proceeds to benefit Buddha Haus. Send US$2 for list of tapes.

Electronic books and texts

• » BuddhaNet (Australia) -- an archive of Theravada Buddhist texts (unformatted ASCII, zip-compressed).

• » DharmaNet (California, USA) -- an archive of Theravada Buddhist texts (unformatted ASCII, zip-compressed).

• » Buddhasasana (Binh Anson) -- a good selection of articles and translations by contemporary authors (mostly Theravadan), in a very readable format (HTML).

• » Theravada Buddhist Women's Resources (Steve Russell) -- a collection of writings by Buddhist women teachers, ancient and modern (HTML).

• » Annotated Bibliography of Buddhism (Here-and-Now, California, USA) provides brief synopses of hundreds of books on Buddhism, and was prepared by the authors of the exceptionally clear and useful textbook » The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction (Fourth Edition).

Lists of links

• » Buddhist Resource File (Aming Tu, Taiwan)

• » DharmaNet InterLinks: Buddhist Studies (DharmaNet International, California, USA)

• » Global Resources for Buddhist Studies (Penn. State University, Pennsylvania, USA)

• » Sadhu!: The Theravada Buddhism Web Directory (Malaysia)

• » WWW Virtual Library -- Buddhism section (T. Matthew Ciolek, Australia)